Elizabeth Sprouls, BFA, 2000

Elizabeth Sprouls (Elizabeth Skelton back in 2000) graduated when the department was known as Communication Arts and Design. She has been a principal at Skelton Design in Baltimore, Maryland for nine years. She enjoys the collaborative nature of design, bringing the unique insight of each participant into the creative process to deliver distinctly original solutions. She is particularly adept at assimilating and organizing extensive amounts of material into original, elegantly conceived work. She has been the lead designer on projects ranging from admissions, development, and editorial publications for colleges and universities to major museum exhibition catalogs. Prior positions include senior graphic designer at Harvard University’s Office of Communications, Alumni Affairs and Development, and senior graphic designer at Chadbourne and Associates, Boston, managing and art directing nationally recognized museum exhibitions.

Skelton Design is a thoroughly VCU alumni endeavor where she is joined by her husband, Kevin Sprouls (BFA ’00), her father Claude (Skelton Design founder, BFA ’71) and mother Gina (BFA ’70 in Painting and Printmaking).

Work

York College of Pennsylvania viewbook.
The viewbook is the centerpiece of York’s admissions campaign and conveys themes and messages through student experiences and testimonials – personal stories of opportunity, discovery, and success made possible by their college experience. The overall theme of the campaign, From Day One, captures the all-encompassing and life changing experience of York College.

Research Magazine for Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine.
For the 10th anniversary of the Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine, this special issue of Breakthrough incorporates original illustrations by The Heads of State to depict the three cornerstones of Hopkins Medicine: clinical care, research, and teaching.

Exhibition catalogue for The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA.The Order of Things is a 52-page perfect-bound book documenting installations by 3 contemporary artists. The catalogue highlights each artist’s work and juxtaposes their installations with Dr. Barnes’s approach to display. The book includes a poster that folds down to a dust jacket, presenting details from the final installations in an orderly grid.

Souvenir book for Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens in Washington D.C.
This square linen-bound 112-page book highlights pieces from Marjorie Merriweather Post’s collection of French eighteenth- and nineteenth-century decorative arts and Russian imperial art paired with exquisite photographs of the mansion and gardens.

What mattered about the BFA program?
VCU gave me a solid foundation in the principles of design and then encouraged me to creatively explore and challenge those ideas. The culture of the BFA program put me in touch with people who saw the world as I did: teachers who taught me to think critically, push the limits, see typography as art, and aspire to live ethically through design; professors who taught me to respect the history of design and the craftsmanship of the letterform; and peers who revered the letterpress and made me want to change the world through the power of type. I went on to marry one of those peers and together we shaped a life, and a studio, that uses design to further education.